of shells
must have been thrown at us. But there was no method or concentration in
the business.

Buller's guns were heard for about two hours in the morning, and wild
rumours filled the air. Roberts and Kitchener were coming out. Buller
was across the Tugela. Within the week our relief was certain. At night
the 18th Hussars gave another concert among the rocks by the riverside.
In the midst of a comic song on the inner meaning of Love came a sound
as of distant guns. The inner meaning of Love was instantly forgotten.
All held their breaths to listen. But it was only some horses coming
down to water, and we turned to Love again, while the waning moon rose
late beside Lombard's Kop, red and shapeless as a potsherd.

_December 24, 1899._

Nothing disturbed the peace of Christmas Eve except three small shells
thrown into the town about five o'clock tea-time, for no apparent
reason. The main subject of interest was the chance of getting any
Christmas dinner. Yesterday twenty-eight potatoes were sold in the
market for 30s. A goose fetched anything up to L3, a turkey anything up
to L5. But the real problem is water. The river is now a thick stream of
brown mud, so thick that it cannot be filtered unless the mud is first
precipitated. We used to do it with alum, but no alum is left now. Even
soda-water is almost solid.

_December 25, 1899._

The Boer guns gave us an early Christmas carol, and at intervals all day
they joined in the religious and social festivities. Our north end of
the town suffered most, and we beguiled the peaceful hours in digging
out the shells that had nearly killed us. They have a marketable value.
One perfect specimen of a 96lb. shell from Bulwan fell into a soft
flower bed and did not burst or receive a scratch. I suppose it cost the
Boers about L35, and it would still fetch L10 as a secondhand article. A
brother to it pitched into a boarding house close by us, and blew the
whole gable end sky high. Unhappily two of the inmates were wounded, and
a horse killed.

But such little contretemps as shells did not in the least interfere
with the Christmas revels. About 250 children are still left in the town
or river caves (where one or two have recently been born), and it was
determined they should not be deprived of their Christmas tree. The
scheme was started and organised by Colonel Rhodes and Major "Karri"
Davis, of the Imperial Light Horse. Four enormous trees were erected in
the